How Do You Create Flight Plans in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020?

 It is better to follow the rules in flying from airports.

First create a flight plan. Next, we need to communicate with traffic controllers, but AI can help us there.

Climbing mountains using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

 

Mount Everest, using a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX Turbo Prop. Rated to have a maximum altitude of 25,000 ft but I managed to reach higher than 27,000 ft to fly over a mountain, that I presume to be Mount Everest.

Mount Kilimanjaro using Icon A5 that is rated to have a maximum altitude of 15,000 ft but this is higher than 17,000 ft when I crossed over the top of the mountain.

 Mount Kinabalu in my home state of Sabah, Malaysia.

The Best Joysticks for Flight Simulators

Best Joystick

The best advice is from a real pilot who does Flight Simulation.

Stefan Drury recommends the Logitech Extreme 3D and I agree with him. I have owned a few Logitech products and they last the longest, even better than Razer.It is similar to Panasonic in the cosumer electronics. Probably Logitech uses lasting plastics instead of cheap plastics that do not last long.

 

 

 Logitech Extreme 3D Pro

As Mr. Drury commented, it is better to use this joystick rather than the more expensive ones and save for gas to enjoy real flights. It could mean that the joystick feeling is reasonable. At RM150 from PCIMAGE, it is a bargain. One important characteristic is the lack of dead zone at rest. This is what differentiates the realistic feeling from the cheap joysticks. The more expensive joysticks mmay be more accurate but they are not worth the realism as far as flying is concerned.

Real Joysticks are Inferior

The more expensive joysticks such as the Hall effect switches used by Thrustmasters HOTAS WARTHOG because they try to emulate real joysticks but I notice that they are limiatioins, rather than advantages. We are trying to emulate the weaknesses of real joysticks as commented by this video, in this Linus Tech Tips channel. Real joysticks are heavy and slow. If you use them in competitions, you may be at a disadvantage.

 For an example of manufacturers who have upgraded to the latest technology, watch this video about Airbus choice of joysticks instead of wheel.

Because modern vehicles are flown by wire, we can use joysticks to reduce space.We should use joysticks for cars as well. The Radio Control hobby world is far more advanced than real world technology and manufacturers are still behind RC hobbyists. In video games, gaming hardware could be more advanced than real hardware and manufacturers should emulate these gaming professionals because vehicles are now flown by wire.

Hobby controllers may not be as durable but they perform better and cost much less within their expected life. If they pass that life, just replace them. Performance is more important than life time. The reasons that pilots and users are more familiar with tradional controllers, is not valid because they can be retrained and younger generations are already trained in video games to use optimal controllers. Airbus is an example of a forward looking manufacturer. Car manufacturers should follow.

One reason why car manufacturers shold folow is the versatility of the joystick. This Logitech joysticks as well as others, have a Z-axis that is implemented by just twisting the joystick. The Logitech Extreme 3D PRO even has a slider that can be used as a throttle, just like many others.

Cheaper Joysticks

I had used a cheaper joystick, Genius F-31U with vibration. Unfortunately the vibration does not work in Windows 10 64 bit. Its major problem is the lack of centering ability. It wonders off, making it difficult to keep my hands off the joystick.

Genius Maxfighter F31u

Adjusting Joysticks

Because cheaper joysticts have more deadzone and does not centre well, the dead zone adjustment of Microsoft Flight Simulator should be adjust to accomodate it.

Listen to the advice given by  Old Guy Geek Tech Tips channel. However, he does nto elaborate on how to adjust.

I suspect we need to increase the dead zone allowance for joysticks with erratic centering so that the aircrafft can fly by itself without us touching the joystick, just adjust the trim once in a while. It will certainly reduce the stress of flying.

For sensitive planes such as aerobatic planes, we should reduce curving the response curve downward. For airliners, it is best to increase sensitivity by curving the curve upwards so that small joystick movement can cause a large change in control surfaces. This is an example of how cheap joysticks are not really a problem for modern vehicles because they can be compensated for.

I didn't do it for my Genius F31U which I should have done fully. I tried to play with the sensitivity adjustments but decided to give up and buy the Logitech joystick instead.

Realistic Joysticks

The best way to make realistic joysticks are to make them look like real joysticks, like Thrustmaster Warthog and have devices to adjust the hardwardness of the inputs by changing springs or adding tightening screws.

The above is a good video of how rudders make flight simulators more realistic without breaking your budget. He even advised Thrustmaster to invest a little more by adding grease for the rails.

To be even more realistic, you can watch this video of Thrustmaster TPR. One comment is that real Cesna pedals are vertical. At MYR 4,179.96 ( US$1000 )it is just too expensive. The cost is in making them realistic instead of just functional.

Getting Started with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

 

 

Get it

 https://www.flightsimulator.com/

Get it from the above.

You can also get it from Steam but it is more expensive there.

 How to get the best game at the moment, Microsoft Flight Simulator for us$1 or actually rm32, for a month. get a us address from comGateway. Put that address into your microsoft account. buy xbox MYR 41.72 ( MYR 41.72 ( MYR 41.80 ( $10 )))gift for rm32 from kk gamezone in Shopee. He will send a redemption code within minutes in the chat, and use it to pay xbox pass by redeeming.  Do not enter any backup payment. If you had, like me, remove them first.

I just want to experience Microsoft Online gaming experience. It is very bad compared to others. The best is still Steam. GOG is good for complete games, untouched by any protection but little online, although GOG Galaxy is attempting to beat Steam.

Steam can share games with 4 others but cannot play at the same time. xbox app, may need to setup family accounts.

Although downloading 100GB it was reported to take 3 hours even with 500Mb/s line like mine. It was an hour, still downloading.

How to control the planes

https://www.shacknews.com/article/119877/microsoft-flight-simulator-2020-controls-and-keybindings

https://www.shacknews.com/article/119877/microsoft-flight-simulator-2020-controls-and-keybindings

How to find interesting places

https://www.polygon.com/microsoft-flight-simulator-guide/21372477/find-famous-landmarks-points-of-interest-poi

 How to get points

 https://stevivor.com/guides/microsoft-flight-simulator-achievements-list/

How to view and take photos

 https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016003159

 Photogrammetric Cities

https://se7en.ws/all-341-photorealistic-cities-in-microsoft-flight-simulator-2020/?lang=en

Re: Solution to installing scenery for FSX in Win7 64bit

Salam,

Hye,

I Have these file FS2004 Scenery--LCCT Terminal And Kuala Lumpur Airport, FS2004 Scenery--LCCT Terminal And Kuala Lumpur Airport, Malaysia. By Cheong Jia Feng.

Can you teach me steps how to make it available in my FSX? ive tried others scenery and were successfully play. But i have trouble with this one. realy need your help. Thank you.

Izzuddin



On Sunday, 5 September 2010 16:03:31 UTC+8, Ir. Hj. Othman bin Hj. Ahmad wrote:
> The solution is simple. Just edit the scenery.cfg in PROGRAMDATA , not
> in USERS.
>
> Although these scenery.cfg appear in various directories in FSX, only
> the one in PROGRAMDATA is meaningful.
> Once you have edited it, it will appear in the "add scenery" within
> FSX.
>
> I have searched for the solutions in the web without much success
> because of too much misleading information. This is is verified by me.
> I don't have any problem with Vista 64, only Win7 64.
>
> http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16027
>
> BobSmall BobSmall is offline
> Users Flag!
> Join Date: Jul 2009
> Posts: 8
> Smile Solution to "Cannot add scenery"
> It seems that quite a few people are having problems installing
> additional scenery with FSX and 64-bit versions of Vista and/or
> Windows 7
>
> In my case I was trying to add Ants Aussie Airports. The folder was
> correctly named and located under the Addon Scenery folder, and
> contained the correct Scenery and Texture folders and files. But no
> matter what I tried, nothing worked. In the Add Area dialog, pressing
> the OK button just blanked out the directory name and did nothing.
>
> So the only solution was to edit the scenery.cfg file.
>
> Under Windows 7 there are two FSX file locations for "user data"
> 1) C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX
> 2) C:\Users\Robert\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX
> In this case the the scenery.cfg file is in the first location
>
> Save a copy!!!
> And then edit it. The last bit of the file looked like this
>
> [Area.137]
> Title=FTXAA_HOLGERMESH
> Local=ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAA_HOLGERMESH
> Layer=137
> Active=TRUE
> Required=FALSE
>
> [Area.138]
> Title=OZx_AUS
> Local=OZx\OZx_AUS
> Layer=138
> Active=TRUE
> Required=FALSE
>
> I just added another section like this, making sure that the new
> section had the next available area and layer numbers. The last entry
> will have the highest area number. Use that number+1 for both area and
> layer. Because the layer number for the added area will be the highest
> in the file, it will appear at the top of the list. It is a lot easier
> to simply put the new entry at the top, and then let the Add Scenery
> widget adjust all the layer numbers later.
>
> [Area.137]
> Title=FTXAA_HOLGERMESH
> Local=ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAA_HOLGERMESH
> Layer=137
> Active=TRUE
> Required=FALSE
>
> [Area.138]
> Title=OZx_AUS
> Local=OZx\OZx_AUS
> Layer=138
> Active=TRUE
> Required=FALSE
>
> [Area.139]
> Title=Ants Aussie Airports
> Local=Addon Scenery\Ants Aussie Airports
> Layer=139
> Active=TRUE
> Required=FALSE
>
> Saved.
> Fired up FSX and into Settings > Scenery library and there it was.
> Sitting at the top of the list. I then moved it down to its correct
> position.
>
> So, a very satisfied flyer.
>
> No idea why the FSX widget wouldn't do its job. It's only a simple
> edit of a text file.
>
> Hope this helps.

Solution to installing scenery for FSX in Win7 64bit

The solution is simple. Just edit the scenery.cfg in PROGRAMDATA , not
in USERS.

Although these scenery.cfg appear in various directories in FSX, only
the one in PROGRAMDATA is meaningful.
Once you have edited it, it will appear in the "add scenery" within
FSX.

I have searched for the solutions in the web without much success
because of too much misleading information. This is is verified by me.
I don't have any problem with Vista 64, only Win7 64.

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16027

BobSmall BobSmall is offline
Users Flag!
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 8
Smile Solution to "Cannot add scenery"
It seems that quite a few people are having problems installing
additional scenery with FSX and 64-bit versions of Vista and/or
Windows 7

In my case I was trying to add Ants Aussie Airports. The folder was
correctly named and located under the Addon Scenery folder, and
contained the correct Scenery and Texture folders and files. But no
matter what I tried, nothing worked. In the Add Area dialog, pressing
the OK button just blanked out the directory name and did nothing.

So the only solution was to edit the scenery.cfg file.

Under Windows 7 there are two FSX file locations for "user data"
1) C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX
2) C:\Users\Robert\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX
In this case the the scenery.cfg file is in the first location

Save a copy!!!
And then edit it. The last bit of the file looked like this

[Area.137]
Title=FTXAA_HOLGERMESH
Local=ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAA_HOLGERMESH
Layer=137
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

[Area.138]
Title=OZx_AUS
Local=OZx\OZx_AUS
Layer=138
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

I just added another section like this, making sure that the new
section had the next available area and layer numbers. The last entry
will have the highest area number. Use that number+1 for both area and
layer. Because the layer number for the added area will be the highest
in the file, it will appear at the top of the list. It is a lot easier
to simply put the new entry at the top, and then let the Add Scenery
widget adjust all the layer numbers later.

[Area.137]
Title=FTXAA_HOLGERMESH
Local=ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAA_HOLGERMESH
Layer=137
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

[Area.138]
Title=OZx_AUS
Local=OZx\OZx_AUS
Layer=138
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

[Area.139]
Title=Ants Aussie Airports
Local=Addon Scenery\Ants Aussie Airports
Layer=139
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE

Saved.
Fired up FSX and into Settings > Scenery library and there it was.
Sitting at the top of the list. I then moved it down to its correct
position.

So, a very satisfied flyer.

No idea why the FSX widget wouldn't do its job. It's only a simple
edit of a text file.

Hope this helps.

Tutorials on Flying

I have been using the FSX lessons to learn how to fly. I had cheated in order to pass the Private Pilot License by editing its script.

It was too frustrating to fail without knowing the reason for failing. It was due to my lack of understanding of the terms used in the test. The previous lessons didn't help much partly because we can pass without knowing everything.

Recently I tried the lessons in FS9 as well and I notice that their scripts are the same. I transfered my edited PPL for FSX to FS9 without any problem. It is necessary so that my daughter can use the same script as well.

FSX cannot run on a normal notebook equipped with standard graphics card even with the lowest graphics settings. With FS9, it is possible to run with frames per second locked to 10 frames per second, the lowest setting. I was able to set other graphics parameters to the highest settings.

After listening the lesson instructions more carefully, the most important message was to adjust pitch for speed and power for angle of descent. This is opposite to what I had been doing previously. After changing to this method, flying has become much easier. All flight simulator pilots should take note of this.

Another revelation was that attitude is the most important aspect to remember. Climbing is at 80 knots with a positive pitch. Power should be full but pitch adjusted in order to achieve this speed. This nose high attitude makes it difficult to see in front of the pilot.

The most important purpose of flaps is to lower this pitch so that we can see the runway more clearly. Speed must be maintained at 80 knots on landing at a vertical speed of minus 500 foot per second. (Better change to foot per second because FSX tutorials are all in imperial units instead of metric.) When descending, lower power setting to about 1600 RPM, and adjust pitch until speed is at 80 knots.

This has just been reminded to me by a tutorial that comes with flightgear. I was directed to this webpage http://www.flightgear.org/Docs/Tutorials/circuit/index.html, from flight_simulator_tutorial.html in docs directory of flightgear installation directory. The author is Curtis L. Olson.

Olson recommends slightly different settings for landing and climbing. 70 knots for climbing and landing, and at 1500 RPM for descending. He is flying at Canadian air space.

I have mastered the VOR and ILS flying but have difficulty with the Instrument Flight Check Ride. I was asked to do a holding pattern based on the chart on a miss-approach, or going around as the tester announces it. The lessons previously implies that the holding pattern that must be held should be around a VOR but the miss-approach precedure indicated by the chart does not indicate a VOR, but labelled as 5.8 SEA( SEA is the name of a VOR that is used by the airport for landing procedures).

The technique for VOR flying is actually simple. The VOR setting called OBS, is actually the heading that we want to go to the VOR. If you set the OBS to 0 degree, it means that the desired heading is 0 or 360 degrees. This is the line of sight from the plane to the VOR, not the direction that the nose of the plane is heading.

If the indicator points to the right, it means that the VOR is to the right. We must intercept by going to the right of 0 degree heading, not to the current heading of the plane. The fastest way to intercept is at 90 degree heading, for a desired 0 degree VOR approach. The trouble is that, it will also overshoot fastest.

As we get near to the VOR as indicated by the DME, we should not intercept at the highest angle, but at just a few degrees. If we are at 1 nm from the VOR, we should intercept at the most, 5 degree heading, i.e. 5 degree to the right of the desired VOR setting.

For the ILS GS(Glide Slope). We only need to maintain a vertical speed of minus 500 fps or whatever the recommended vertical speed is by adjusting power.

I am still learning but it is getting easier. I have managed to get hold of a few books. These books appear to recommend using GPS for the landing. Without GPS, we need to use the stop watch in order to maintain the holding pattern as taught by the lessons in FS9 and FSX.